GM and Chrysler Closing Down Dealerships

[Ty Burna]

Well since we were discussing politics about big government earlier, I just want to say that I am more pissed off at the government then I ever have been. Obama told/forced GM to close down dealerships across the nation, and now because of this, the dealership my dad works at as a mechanic may be losing it's dealership status with GM.

Now this is a horrible idea to begin with. My father put it the best way possible: We need to sell cars in order to have cars come in to be worked on with warranty or whatever, and to sell parts. Without us selling cars we will lose more service repairing cars and likely will end up closing shop because it will no longer be profitable. Another thing that makes this a shit idea, is that it doesn't lower inventory whatsoever because you just shift it to other locations, and it can also actually lower the amount of car sales GM and Chrysler will have. Why? Because people will not want to drive a 100 miles or more just to get a vehicle first, and then they won't want to drive that 100 miles or can't drive that 100 miles to get it worked on. So what they will do is look around for the closest piece of shit vehicle they can find, damn the brand or not. People won't want to travel the distance to have their car worked on, so they will find the closest dealer they can find, regardless of the brand. This will cause a huge dilemma for GM and Chrysler in the end. Smaller local dealers actually help spread the brand loyalty and it is very apparent in my town, as most people actually drive GM products they bought from the local dealer.

So to sum this up, this isn't going to help jack shit for either auto maker, but they had to do so in order to get help staying afloat because of the federal government forcing them to. This is bullshit to the highest degree and I'm starting to fear we are getting closer to socialism the more the federal government throws it's weight around. Now because of all this, GM and Chrysler are going to suffer more because of less care sales then they have already, so any money they receive in aid, is going to go down the drain faster than AIG could hand out bonuses to their CEO's and pay off the politicians AIG has in their back pockets. (That was a conspiracy theory so whatever don't take that literally.)

I"m just extremely pissed off at this, and now it's affecting my father and the business he works for. The business has been profitable and done well for over 30 some years, why pull the plug on a profitable company? Politics, because the banks and the insurance companies basically have all politicians by the nuts, so the politicians don't do shit to the banks and insurance companies but throw money at them that doesn't help at all but to screw over the taxpayers more and more just to line the coffers of the fucking rich. Yet when an industry that has supplied thousands of middle class jobs is going down, they come down with the hammer and force all this bullshit regulation on them. Why? Because the auto industry has never been in bed with the government, so of course the government is going to treat the industry like shit. But it's perfectly fine for the criminals at AIG to go ahead and just keep lining their pockets without actually improving the bank's status itself. GM and Chrysler aren't looking to do that, they need legit help in order to stay in business at nowhere near the amount of money the banks are begging for.

So to end this little rant, am I the only one that feels this is bullshit? This has affected me personally now, and at this point I cannot stand the federal government and in an anarchistic method of thinking (don't ask me, I'm just ready to murder), I say we tear down the whole fucking establishment, not the core beliefs, but we need to wipe the slate clean, throw out almost every politician in Washington, and let's get some people that will actually do some good, not people that will make sure that all their rich buddies get richer. Like Thomas Jefferson famously said, you need a little revolution every once in awhile. I say that time should come soon.

 

[FromTheSouth]

I feel your pain. Some of the new regulations on the car companies are just absurd. Some of the regulations in general, are absurd. Banks, automobile makers, and every day Americans wonder what measures of control the government will take next. This is why we had tea parties.

Let me help flesh this out a bit. The reason that the US car makers are in trouble is two fold. First of all, the credit crunch has forced many people to buy cars they can pay cash for. Those seeking loans are facing higher interest rates, therefore seeking smaller loans. The smaller loans are won used cars, instead of new cars. Dealerships make money on used cars, but GM and Ford do not. While individual dealerships may remain solvent, the backlogged inventory is quite an expense for the manufacturers, and it an expense that they are not recouping.

The second issue is the unions. Unions were established to protect the rights of workers. However, OSHA goes above and beyond what unions ever asked for, safety wise. The unions exist today in order to raise the salary and benefits of their members. Furthermore, if one of these companies hired even one non UAW employee, the rest of the staff would walk out. The Unions have ensured so many financial windfalls for workers, that the companies spend most of their revenue on workers. This forces the companies to raise prices. Furthermore, the steel workers union asks for so much money that it is actually cheaper to buy steel from Japan than it is to buy American. What hurts worse is that the steel we buy from Japan is reconstituted scrap from America. So, now the AutoIndustry is crippled and the steel companies can't compete. The Unions, instead of conceding financial guarantees, ask for more insurance coverage, and full salary for five years after retirement for 25+ year workers.

Blaming the government for a lot of our troubles is quite accurate. This is no exception. The government has given 20% control of Chrysler to......The United Auto Workers. Now, board members will be Union reps. These reps will funnel more money to the unions, which will force the closure of these companies.

Remember, Toyotas are built in San Antonio. Texas does not allow union labor. Nissans are built, in America, in non union states. That is why the equivalent to a $20,000 Chevy is $14,000. It is all well and good to buy American, but that big of a difference (with interest, on a loan) keeps food off some tables.

The choice is to close dealerships, or simply stop production.

I personally think that these regulations are a test run for a worker's party, which is the people's party.....in Socialist nations.

 

[Ty Burna]

And I agree with you 100% about the UAW, they are one of the bigger factors why GM is bleeding money left and right. What I don't understand is, why risk losing your job by refusing to lower your wages? It's either you get jack shit for a wage, and in Detroit no less, or make say $10 an hour less. If you're making $50 an hour like some workers are, and you took a pay cut to $40 an hour, shit you still making excellent wages regardless, you just may have to cut a couple excess things out of your budget. Big deal, it's a recession, everyone's doing it, and if you took that pay cut, you help the company that employs you, and if the company can hold on and improve because of your small sacrifice, later on you will probably get your wage increased once more. But no, because of the union's refusal to even compromise, means that there will be more job losses because of factory closings. Now I must disclose this, next month I will be joining the union that is at my workplace, however the union there has an excellent relationship with the company and my dad who is probably the most anti union person you could meet, told me to join it.

Regarding the inventory of new vehicles, as I said, what good is it going to do by essentially consolidating an area to one dealer? You take away the inventory from dealerships you shut down, and you add it to the area's one dealership, it didn't do anything, but probably hurt your sales because instead of going to say GM's dealership that's local, they are going to go to say the Toyota dealership that's only 20 miles away instead. They end up not selling those cars and they sit at the big dealership going nowhere instead of being purchased at a smaller dealer. You lose business to the competition because of location in the end, and to me that makes no business sense whatsoever. What they need to do is let the inventory clear out that they have already, slow down production and not make so many vehicles that are not going to sell. Because of the economic crunch, people are going to go out and buy that $10,000 Honda or Toyota that is supposed to compare to the $15,000-$20,000 Chevy. But this is where they're making a mistake. Toyota's and Honda's are actually very low quality vehicles, and have more problems than Chevy vehicles do. So in the end you may actually pay more for your Toyota and Honda because of the repairs that will inevitably be needed to be done to it. That statement may seemed biased, but it's what my father has seen in his 30+ years of being a mechanic in the industry. I think he knows what he's talking about so I can trust his judgment.

In the end, what kind of government do you know of that can go and tell a company that a CEO must step down immediately? Hmm, oh I don't know, I believe that form of government that can tell companies what to do is, is none other than socialism/Communism, whatever you want to call it. I also heard a very disturbing piece of audio tonight, in the 60's Khrushchev came over and talked with our Secretary of Agriculture. And in this conversation, Khrushchev went on to say that America would not be force fed Communism, but they would slowly be given it, a little at a time, before you know it, one day, America would wake up and realize that they had allowed to happen and openly supported Communism/socialism without ever realizing it. That was 40 years ago, that hits home a little close I believe.

 

[Big J]

This ALL obamas fault. He should have let them file bankruptcy and then come out of it stronger, like most companies do. He has taken over a PRIVATE COMPANY, that is not in the constitution.

If you buy a new car and there is no dealership in your town where are you going to go to get warranty work done? The ONLY reason I would buy a new truck is for the warranty.
It's one thing to go out of town to buy a car if you can get a better deal, it's another to have to leave town to get your car repaired.
Also, If you travel and your car breaks down where are you going to take it, if you don't know a good repair shop?